Volunteers are devoted to beautifying local landscapes

Huntsville Forester

Maureen Hakenberg joined the Parry Sound Horticultural Society about 10 years ago to get to know the area and people and learn how to garden.
Now she’s one of the society’s just over 100 members who jointly donate thousands of hours every year maintaining eight gardens around town and keeping the organization running.
Last year, volunteers contributed 2,136.5 hours.
Hakenberg didn’t know how to garden when she joined, after retiring with her husband to their Waubamik cottage. Since joining she’s been on its board as a director, president and vice-present and now helps organize the annual garden tour.
In society’s meetings alone she puts in 48 hours a year, the hours jump in June when she puts in 30 that month alone in preparation for the tour as she chooses gardens for the event.
“There’s some members who put in just a few hours and some put in more,” she said.
Another board member is treasurer Judy Keown.
Keown joined the horticultural society in 2001 with a love of gardening and desire to learn more.
“There’s a lot of knowledge with older gardeners and it’s a social event, too,” said Keown, who works full-time for McDougall Township where she maintains the office garden.
On top of her duties as the treasurer, she volunteers a couple hours a week to help maintain three gardens in town in the summer.
“It’s a labour of love,” she said. “Anybdy who enjoys gardening, they don’t find it a lot of work. It’s a labour of love and you don’t over tax yourself, you have to pace yourself.”
In the winter the number of hours she volunteers goes up with society meetings, year-end accounting and grant applications. The society keeps tabs of volunteer hours for use in grant applications to the province and town and for recognition by the province.
“All the societies send in the number of volunteer hours to the Ontario Horticultural Association and that gives the government an idea of how many hours are being donated that they would have to pay someone to do,” said Keown.
While the volunteer hours add up year-after-year, and are up slightly this year with better reporting, members have found a way to keep the time weeding the town’s gardens to a minimum – mulch.
This may free up time for more enjoyable tasks such as taking in a presentation on birds, mushrooms or other garden related topics at the monthly meetings.